Judy Buenoano
Michael Goodyear James Goodyear Kimberly Goodyear |victim=3 |motive=Insurance money |conviction=Death |status=Executed }} Judias "Judy" Buenoano (1943-1998) was a serial killer who targeted her family for insurance family. Background In 1971, Judy Welty was married to James Goodyear, an Air Force sergeant and a Vietnam veteran. Judy began giving him tiny amounts of arsenic, just enough for the poisoning to go unnoticed. Long term exposure to the poison tore up Goodyear's body. He died on September 15, 1971. She waited five days before collecting Goodyear's $85,000 life insurance policy. A decade later, police exhumed Goodyear's body and medical examiners discovered the arsenic in his blood stream, apparently enough to kill 12 people. In 1973, she moved in with Bobby Joe Morris. In January 1978, he succumbed to arsenic poisoning. Her son Michael Goodyear wanted to join the military. He joined the army in June 1979, being assigned to Ft. Benning, Georgia, after basic training. En route to his new post, he stopped off to visit his mother in Florida. That's when Buenoano set her sights on him and poisoned him as well, feeding him arsenic. The poisoning didn't kill him but he was crippled. Army physicians found seven times the normal level of arsenic in Michael's body, and there was little they could do to reverse its destructive action. After six weeks of care, the muscles of his arms and lower legs had atrophied to the point where Michael could neither walk nor use his hands. He finally left the hospital wearing braces and a prosthetic device on one arm. He was discharged from the Army and sent back into Judy's care. Judy had also taken life insurance policies on him. On May 13, 1980, Judy took Michael on a canoe trip. When the canoe was out of public sight, she flipped the canoe and Michael drowned. She hailed a fisherman. She didn't mentioned Michael until she got to shore and then asked for a beer. She collected a military life insurance policy and two private policies, totaling to $120,000. On June 25, 1983, in Pensacola Florida, Judy told her fiancee, John Gentry, that she was pregnant but she had been surgically sterilized in 1978. John was pleased and went to get champagne to celebrate. When he started the car, a dynamite bomb she planted in the car exploded. John was seriously injured, but survived. Dynamite residue revealed that a bomb had been planted. Homicide detective Ted Chamberlain was assigned to the case. Even though Judy would financially benefit from insurance if Gentry had died, John Gentry himself refused to believe that Judy was involved. He also said the policy was cancelled. Newscaster Sue Straughn was once a client at Buenoano's nail salon. She saw the news about the car bombing while at Judy's nail salon. Judy Buenoano was working on Straughn's nails. The entire salon became quiet as the news reported about the bombing. Judy didn't stop working however. Police discovered that Judy had placed an insurance policy of $500,000 on John Gentry. When they told Gentry this, he remembered that Judy had given him vitamins that made him sick. John provided police with several of the vitamin capsules Judy had given him. Analysis revealed that they contained paraformaldehyde, a Class III poison with no known medical uses. Buenoano was found guilty murder and first degree theft. She was executed by the electric chair on March 30, 1998. She insisted to her death she was innocent. Category:Executed Category:Serial Killers Category:Black Widows Category:Killer Mothers Category:Bombers Category:Poisoners